


Thrive//The 5th Wave, Ben Parish

by Seaside_Stars



Category: The 5th Wave Series - Rick Yancey
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 16:52:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11741211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seaside_Stars/pseuds/Seaside_Stars
Summary: He firmly placed his hand on my shoulder,"Please, don't do this.""I made a promise, Zombie. You should've learned by now I don't break my promises.""Fine then, in coming with you.""No, you're staying here and protecting the squad, I'm going alone.""You're part of the squad!""Forget about me.""I can't..."





	1. Chapter 1

"Ariana! Ariana where are you?!" 

"Mom?! I'm coming!" 

"Mom... oh my god... mom you'll be okay" 

"Honey listen, promise me you'll take care of your sister. We both know I'm not going to make it. Please, please be strong for me, I know you can" 

"Mom...please don't-"

"Promise me" 

"I promise..." 

••••••••••

So that was sort of a.. flashback thingy mabobber the main character.. Ariana had. Leave recommendations and all that crap in the comments. I plan to actually complete this story and I already have some chapters planned! Thank you so much for reading!

-L


	2. Chapter 2

Bang! I pull the trigger on my rifle and the bullet ends up about 6 inches from the target."Not your best work.." Zombie says jokingly 

"Says you! You can't even hit the target half the time" 

"Yeah whatever." 

The alarm goes off letting everyone know it's time to go back to the barracks. "Alright let's go everyone" Zombie says in an almost annoyed tone. 

"Just one more shot?" Teacup pleads 

"Teacup if you don't haul your ass out this door in 10 seconds..." that's all I have to say for the little nuisance to get moving. My relationship with Teacup is kind of like mine with my younger sister was.. love at sometimes and hate at the other times. It's rarely a mix of both though. so I'd like to protect her in every way possible since I wasn't able to do so with my actual sister. 

Once we reach barracks 10 we all know it's lights out. I haven't had a shower in about 2 days so i better have one now. "I'm having a shower." 

"Can I come?" Flinstone says with this idiotic smirk on his face. 

"How high are you?!" I get a slight chuckle from Poundcake and an eye roll from Zombie. As I walk into the bathroom I poke my head out. 

"Ever say something like that again and I'll shove your boot so far up your ass you'll be able to taste it." Zombie laughs slightly and Flint gives him a look. 

"I'm pretty sure remarks like that are all Flint knows how to say" Dumbo says laughing lightly. 

As the water hits my skin it reminds me of walking home in the rain with my best friend and sister. No. Stop thinking about that. It was in the past.You were different then. You were the old you then. I focus on the cold water splashing on my warm body. It feels nice actually. 

I remember when I first joined Squad 53. I was a replacement for someone named Tank who apparently went Dorothy. I'm not sure what happened because no one likes to talk about it. I assumed it was pretty bad though because at the mention of the word tank Flints back straightens immediately. 

I hear a knock on the door. "What the hell do you want" 

"I wanna use the bathroom!!" Dumbo yells back. 

"Ugh, give me two minutes" 

When I came out of the shower Oompa, Flint, Teacup, and Dumbo were playing their usual card game on the floor. This time Ringer joined in which is unusual. And Nugget is already asleep. I didn't see Zombie anywhere but I assume he's with Reznik or Vosch doing some leader stuff. 

I sat down on my bunk and leant my head on the post. I started thinking about the aliens again. What if they kill everyone. What if they win? That's the old me thinking. Too many what ifs. They won't. That's why we're here. I must have zoned out because next thing I knew Teacup was leaning her head in my shoulder. "Whatcha thinking about?" 

"Nothing you would understand" I say as I ruffle the red-orange-ish hair on her head and sigh. 

"What do you think I am a dumbass like nugget?? Of course I'll understand!" 

"I'm not so sure about that one Cup. It's kind of.. grown up stuff." 

"You're not even a grown up!" That's true, I'm only 17 but now I'm sure if you're above the age of 15 you're considered a grown up. 

"Whatever... close enough. Now go to bed" 

After everyone was in bed I heard a faint whisper "no..no". It sounded like teacup and came from right above me so I climbed up to her bunk and woke her up. 

"Hey, cup? You okay?" 

"Huh what?" She was most likely having a night mare. Probably about how all the kids got ripped from their families because that's how fucked up society is right now. 

"Nightmare?" She nods. "You wanna tell me about it?" She shakes her head sideways. "Ok. Night cup" I climb back down to my bunk. All I can think about is the invaders.. why would they come here? Here of all places? I was actually doing good with my life and school, and then this happened and I heard about my friends deaths everyday. It's turned me into a cold hearted person, the first death I heard of I started bawling my eyes out and then the tears started gradually stopping. After about 7 of my friends and classmates died, my eyes just became lifeless. I stopped smiling. Then, after a while when my mother, my sister and I had to leave, I killed someone. I had my first kill. I've had many. I know this sounds awful but, it feels kind of good to kill. It's was horrifying at first but then I realized, its life and especially now you have to defend yourself to survive. No matter how you defend yourself. 

In the morning Reznik comes in as usual and kills my ears with her god damn air horn that she uses to wake us up. The bunk teacup and I share is in the back of the room so I don't mind getting dressed beside my bed. I usually just wear a grey oversized t shirt and my underwear to bed and let me tell you, it's a lot more comfortable than the jumpsuits we wear. 

Once I'm dressed I follow the rest of the squad to the dining room where the usual pancakes and two pieces of bacon is served. I find myself sitting beside Ringer, one of the people that I actually genuinely trust. When I sit down I find the squad is having an...interesting conversation. 

"Yeah but if a fat person gets shot in the side of the thigh it will go through the fat and not hit the bone!" Teacup exclaims. 

I raise an eyebrow and look at Zombie. "I don't even know.." he says confused. 

••••••••••

Yayyyyyyyyyyy! That was the first chapter! If anyone has suggestions just comment them and stuff! These chapters might be boring because I'm developing character and we all know that's boring. :/ anyways yeah! 

Btw this story takes place a couple of weeks after Slick (the main character) joins squad 53. 

I also apologize in advance for the horrible chapters to come. I'm writing like 5 chapters before publishing any so I need to get back in the swing of writing. They'll get better I promise. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this chapter!   
-L


	3. Chapter 3

When everyone is done eating I head back to the training room. We're allowed in there during our free hours. I head to the punching bags and start kicking the shit out of them. I sigh and move onto a heavier, bigger bag. I never thought I'd be training to be a soldier. Hell, I am a soldier. Fighting aliens... 

I hear the door slam and glance over my shoulder expecting Flint to come in her for the sole purpose of annoying me, or Dumbo trying to improve his shooting skills. But Zombie walks in instead. "Hey Zombie" I say. 

"Hey Slick" I muster a slight smile. My name sounds like a cruel nickname kids in grade school would give someone on the playground or some shit. But to me it sounds fitting. Fast, Smoothly done, easily done... sounds pretty badass and scary to me. 

"So what are you here for?" I turn my head to the side questioning Zombie.

"Well I was actually hoping we could make some sort of a deal." 

"I'm listening" 

"You teach me to shoot and I'll teach you hand to hand combat." I'm pretty bad at hand to hand actually. And Zombie's pretty bad at shooting. I bite my lower lip. 

"And why would I do that?"

"I don't know why would you?" 

I press my tongue up against the side of my cheek and nod slightly looking around the room. "I guess it'll give me something to do. So sure." 

"But I'm tired right now so I'm not doing anything that involves effort until we have to run." 

I'm surprisingly exited that we'll get to spend some time together. Zombie seems kind of kept to himself about things. I'm the same way. But overall I want to get to know Zombie better. He doesn't seem ignorant like most of the squad. I walk over to the mats and just lay down with my hands at my sides. I hear footsteps on the mat and then they stop. I look to my side to see Zombie laying beside my with his hands clutching a chain on his neck. 

We stayed like this for a few minutes then he broke the silence. "How'd you get brought here?" That's something I haven't thought of in a while. And something I didn't expect him to ask. Seeing as we never really talked that much. Except for the casual conversations at meals and in the barracks. 

"The same way as Nugget. The same bus as him actually." 

I wasn't looking at him but I felt his eyes on me. "Then why didn't you join the squad when nugget did?" He asks me. 

"The first few weeks that I was here I was with Dr. Pam. I had a few broken ribs and cuts all over." I glanced at Zombie and he was still looking at me. Our eyes met for a few seconds but I looked back up at the ceiling. 

"How'd you get hurt?" Damn he asks a lot of questions. 

"My best friend tried murdering me." I say bluntly. I close my eyes for a brief second but then the memories start coming back. I open them in fear that I'll remember myself as I was then. Weak, vulnerable, afraid. I try my hardest not to be like her. Not like Ariana. I'm Slick now. A badass, rude, kind of serial killer I guess seeing as I've killed almost 90 people, and I don't care about anyone. Except I kind of care about Teacup. Other than that everyone here can go burn in hell. 

"Oh.. That sucks..." thanks Zombie. I totally didn't know that already. 

"Don't worry I killed her first. She was my first kill actually." I say while turning my head towards Zombie. He looks at me with slightly widened eyes and says, 

"You've had many?" It almost seems as if he was surprised. As if killing people wasn't normal. Normal now I should say. The old me never would have dreamed of even hurting someone. Pssh. Killing people was like in my daily routing before I was brought to camp hell. 

"Yes. Eighty-Four to be exact." 

"You counted?" What?! Has this guy never heard of death? I'm sure almost everyone here has at killed someone. I mean look what society has come to now, Teacup is seven and is training to be a soldier and kill aliens. She's also the most mean seven year old I have ever met. 

"Yes. It's how I kept my sanity after... stuff happened. If I didn't count and just went around killing people aimlessly then I'd probably have gone Dorothy by now." I glance at the clock and start standing up. "We'd better go. We can start training tomorrow, nice chatting with you." I say in a sarcastic tone even though I kind of enjoyed it. It was just quiet time. Like it was in my backyard where I would practise archery everyday after school. I heard Zombie sigh. I'm not sure if it was because we're going to have to run for about 10 minutes straight, a bunch of aliens are trying to kill us, or the fact that the 'moment' thing we just had ended.

Well I wouldn't actually call it a moment. I've seen two five year olds have more of a moment than that. Seriously.

••••••••••

Ayeee chapter twoooo. I'm uploading this now because I plan to update on Sundays and Wednesdays but I won't be able to post on Wednesday and I want to give you guys something to read lol. 

For real comment on this I would like feedback  
-L


	4. Chapter 4

In the field where Reznik makes us run laps the frost in the grass crunches beneath my feet. Back before the waves my mom, my sister and I would roll around in the frosted grass in our backyard because we liked the way it sounded. My sister.. Grace also made it hilarious because she'd constantly roll on top of me laughing her ass off. 

"Okay 53.. let's see what you've got." Reznik says. 

Our squad isn't bad in the running department, except for Oompa and Nugget who are the slowest and Dumbo who gets distracted while running and slows down. Zombie tends to stay behind them pushing them along. I stay near the front because I'm fast. I don't mean to brag or anything but I know I'm fast. My mom said that my dad was fast too. So I assume that's where I get it from. 

Nothing special really happened in our morning run. Except for the usual 10 sit ups for Nugget and Oompa because they're 'too gosh darn slow'. Once we got back to the barracks we had about an hour of free time before we go off to the shooting range. Ringer decided to play chess. Typical Ringer. This time she walked over to me and asked me if I wanted to play. I just sighed and said "My sister liked to play chess. She never taught me how though so I have no clue how to play." 

"Well Slick, she's dead now, get over it." Flint says. And before anyone could say or do anything I'm bent down grabbing both of Flints ankles and pulling so he falls to the ground Zombie and Ringer start running over towards us but I ignore them. I'm so furious, I feel like one of those race horses with the blinders on. I'm tuning out the world around me, I hear some yelling but im so focused it sounds muffled. I punch him in the cheek two times and right when I'm getting ready to swing at his nose I feel arms around my stomach picking me up, It's Zombie. Once he gets me off of Flint Poundcake and Dumbo go to help him up. Once we're both standing I struggle in Zombies grip which he's now standing behind me holding me around my ribs so I don't lash out again. 

"What's your problem?!" I hiss at Flint. And my hands curl up into tight fists which Ringer notices so she comes to my side grabbing one of my arms while Zombie grabs the other. 

"Cmon, let's go."Ringer says calmly as she and Zombie guide me towards the door. Just as we're exiting the room Zombie turns his head to the side looking back into the barracks. 

"Private Flint I have a suggestion. Shut up." He says sternly which makes the corners of my mouth turn upwards slightly. 

"Where are we going?" I turn and ask Ringer shaking myself from their grip. 

"To Dr. Pam obviously." She says as if I had the brain the size of a peanut and I was automatically supposed to know that.

"Why?" 

Zombie takes my right wrist and holds my hand up to my face. My middle finger and knuckle were swelling a little plus I could already see bruising in both my middle and ring finger. "Oh." I say quietly. 

••••••••••

Sorry this chapters so short I just couldn't come up with many ideas. Also if you focus on the first paragraph it reveals a lot about Slick. Anyways thanks so much for reading! 

Please please PLEASEEE comment feedback and suggestions because I honestly don't know how I'm doing on this book! 

-L


	5. Chapter 5

As we walk in to Dr. Pams office she sighs and looks at me with worried eyes. "What's happened this time A-" before she can finish speaking I fake cough so that my old name doesn't come out of her mouth. The first few weeks I was here it was spent with her. I didn't have a private name yet so she called me by my old name. Ariana. Ugh I hate hearing it. It reminds me of.. her. Myself. Back when I was weak and afraid and wouldn't harm a god damn fly. 

I raise my eyebrows and say "Slick. My name is Slick." 

"Alright, Slick what happened?" 

"We're gonna go now. Slick come back to barracks when you're done." Zombie says and then he and Ringer walk out the door. 

I sigh, "Someone made a comment about my sister..." I hold up my hand "So I sort of... punched him in the cheek twice and hit my hand off the floor while I was taking him out by the ankles." I say while sitting down on the medical bed so Dr. Pam can inspect my hand. While she's doing so I think. I'm annoyed. With everything. With me, with Flint, with Reznik, with the aliens, with Zombie and Ringer for stopping me from giving Flint what he deserves, with the world, for ending. As stupid as that may sound I am. It's annoying. The world could have stayed the way it was for a while. They could have given us a warning. 

My thoughts were interrupted by Dr. Pam. "Ariana, why do you always retort to violence?" No one else is in the room so I'm fine with her calling me by my actual name. And for the question itself... "it's how the world is now.. violence everywhere" it's how I survive. It's how everyone survives. If you want to survive. Its just become a daily routine for me.

Ariana would have curled up in a ball and had a panic attack every time she had to run away from something. I did that for a few days. Then I realized I should get my head outta heaven and bring it back down to hell. Where we are. Kids, fighting through this. Without our parents here to help us. Most parents never got to teach their kids all of the life lessons their parents taught them. They never got to see their kids grow up. Instead they're growing up way too fast. On their own. That little girl that always wanted to be a doctor, is on her own starving to death. That teenage boy who always kept to himself and was considered the 'Emo depressed' kid , is getting ready to kill. Everyone strong enough to survive, has changed drastically.

Dr. Pam looked up at me and said "well. Your middle finger is sprained and your ring finger is just bruised. But your knuckle ended up getting sprained as well so I had to wrap up your two fingers and your hand so it can cover everything." I hadn't even noticed she put the wrap or tape on my hand because I was too lost in thought. I nod. I'm determined. We are going to defeat these aliens.

===

Once I get back to barracks I can see Flint glaring at me from his bunk, as he does so I roll my eyes and continue walking. I can see teacup sitting on the edge of my bunk talking to Nugget whose sitting across from her. I would try to figure out what their discussing but then I remember that I don't care and it's probably some little kid shit. 

I sit on the opposite edge of my bunk and polish my boots because they're muddy from the stupid mud puddle Teacup dragged me into this morning. 

"Ariana" I hear coming out of Teacups mouth. Out of instinct or whatever, my head jerks up and I turn to look at the little girl who just spoke one of the worst words I can hear right now. 

"What?" I hiss at Teacup trying not to seem angry. 

She looks at me for a minute then slowly says "We were talking about the things we missed. I miss music and my favourite singer was Ariana Grande" I can't help but cringe at the sound of... my name. Well my first name. But you get the point. 

I roll my eyes. "Teacup move" im going to lay down for a while before we go to the shooting range. When she doesn't move I shove her off the bed and put my hands behind my head. I stare at the ceiling with cold eyes. I miss my eyes. I know, I probably sound like my little bit of sanity is withering away at Barry Allan speed. But my eyes used to be a turquoise-ish-teal-light blue colour. Now they've just faded to grey. 

I really wish that we could just get to our mission already. Graduate or whatever and move on. Get away from Reznik. Do what we came to do. Kick some alien ass. 

••••••••••

I know this chapter was on the shorter side but it's midnight and I'm camping as I'm writing this so.. don't judge me! I'll be having a chapter writing marathon so these next few chapters will be less crappy. :) 

Please, comment your suggestions/feedback! I really want to know how I'm doing with this story because I'm taking this very seriously and I love writing it so far!! 

-L


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